It’s
still cloudy and windy and cold. This weather is better for wheat
than our soybean field. The crabgrass doesn’t appear to be as
green as it was earlier in the week, so the herbicide is working.
Let’s look closer.
Now,
that looks much better, as far as weeds go. By next week I don’t
think there will be any crabgrass left. There are some cracks in
the soil down the rows. Can you see the cracks? That will be the
seedlings trying to emerge. We’ll need to dig to see the seeds.
Well,
this seedling was less than an inch below the soil surface. Notice
this seedling’s cotyledons are yellowish and the hypocotyl is
white. Let’s dig this one up to take a look at it.
This
should give you a better idea of what a soybean seedling looks
like. Do you see what I mean about the crookneck stage? That crook
will straighten out and the cotyledons will push through the soil
crust. Let’s look around some more.
Take
a look at this. You can see one or two seedlings breaking through
the soil surface. Soybean seedlings exert a considerable amount of
force to push through the soil surface. Let’s dig back the crust
so we can see these two seedlings.
Wow!
Look at all those seedlings about ready to emerge. I guess
we helped them out a little. Notice these seedlings are greener
than the first seedling ... why do you think that’s the case?
Well, I think these seedlings were getting some sunlight because
the crack was rather big, while the first seedling was still
underground and couldn’t get any sunlight. The green color is,
of course chlorophyll (we will tell you about chlorophyll later).
